


Going Up

by mountain_ash



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Awkward Derek, Derek is Good with Kids, Feelings, Fluff, Nurse Derek, Nurse Stiles, POV Third Person Limited, Persistent Stiles Stilinski
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-23
Updated: 2015-10-23
Packaged: 2018-04-27 18:16:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5058955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mountain_ash/pseuds/mountain_ash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If the elevator could speak, it would tell you a love story.</p><p>OR</p><p>In which the elevator is both oblivious and missing half the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Going Up

**Author's Note:**

> The hospital elevator sees so much action on the show, but I wanted to give it a slightly happier story. 
> 
> Just so you don't get confused, any time you see italics it's the elevator speaking in the present.

_Today is the day. I can feel it. Of course, I say that everyday. But who can blame me? I have been watching these two fools from my four walls for three years now and quite frankly I can’t stand it anymore._

 

Three years ago this day was the moment Nurse Derek as his patients call him, encountered Stiles, the new nurse on the geriatric floor, just below the pediatric floor where Derek works. It had been a very typical Monday morning of wheeling his patients down to the testing floor when I was called to stop just a floor down and a brand new nurse stepped in, pushing an elderly man with a crooked jaw.

 

This new nurse looked pretty young to me, with his little upturned nose and shining eyes, but he made up for youth with his enthusiasm.

 

"Alright, Mr. McCall-"

 

"Call me Scott, Mie-Mie..." I looked at the nurses tag and I have to say, I couldn't have pronounced it either.

 

"I'll make you a deal. I'll call you Scott and you call me Stiles, instead of this monstrosity."

Derek quirked an eyebrow at that, and the little boy in his wheelchair giggled.

 

"That's a funny name!" I wish I could laugh because Derek looked horrified.

 

"Boyd, be polite. Apologize."

 

Boyd looked vaguely repentant as he looked up at Stiles who was looking amusedly at Derek.

 

"I'm sorry, Nurse Stiles."

Stiles knelt down in front of Boyd and his eyes crinkled with mirth. "Well thanks little fella. Apology accepted." He looked back up at Derek then, WINKED AT HIM, and held out his hand. I watched in anticipation as Derek shook it firmly even as he kept his typical frown. "As you heard, I'm Stiles, the new nurse on the geriatric floor."

 

"Derek." That was it? No smile? No 'nice to meet you'? I knew Derek was a tough nut to crack but that was just rude.

 

Stiles seemed unperturbed, however, and carried on enthusiastically just as I reached their destination. "Well it was nice to meet you, Derek. I'm sure we'll be sharing many a ride up and and down together. And it was very nice meeting you, Boyd."

 

"Bye, Nurse Stiles!" The boy chirped back as Derek smiled fondly down at him. At least he smiled for his young patients.

~~~~~~~~

 

It was much the same a week later when Derek was again taking Boyd down for his weekly blood draw and Stiles got on the elevator again, this time pushing along a woman with luscious white hair and green eyes.

 

"Lydia I'm telling you again, you can't analyze the meds we give you in the chem lab. You just have trust I'm giving you the right stuff." Stiles finally looked up from setting Lydia's breaks to find Derek staring at him judgmentally, and boy did he turn every shade of pink I’ve ever seen. "Oh, hi Derek."

 

Derek nodded his head in acknowledgment. “Stiles.”

 

“And hello Mr. Boyd! How are you today?”

 

“Hi Nurse Stiles! I’m good. Nurse Derek is taking me down to get my blood drawn.”

 

Derek had started watching the exchange with interest, though I could tell he was trying to hide it by fiddling with his stethoscope. Lydia was eyeing him with an old woman’s wisdom, and I couldn’t help but preen a little that I wasn’t the only one that had noticed anything.

 

“Well, that’s no good, is it now?” Stiles was saying. “I’ll have to see what I can do about getting Mr. Scott down to your floor for story time when you come back up. I know he’s been working on his Big Bad Wolf impression.”

 

“You don’t have to ask him to change his schedule for Boyd.” Derek said suddenly.

 

“He speaks!” Stiles lifted his eyebrows in mock surprise and I swore I could see a bit of blush beneath Derek’s stubble. “Don’t worry on Scott’s account. He’s been begging me to let him get off the floor more often. He loves the kiddos.”

 

“Oh. Okay.” Derek seemed to get his foot stuck in his mouth again and didn’t speak for the short remainder of the trip down.

~~~~~~~~

 

Stiles got back on with Lydia a while after Derek had taken Boyd back up.

 

“So were you maybe flirting a little with that cute nurse from before, Stiles?” I could tell as soon as I saw the massive blush flash over Stiles’s cheeks that I was going to like this Lydia.

“What are you talking about? I’m new here! Just trying to make some friends.”

The wrinkles in Lydia’s face deepened as she grinned knowingly at Stiles. “Okay, hon.”

~~~~~~~~

 

“Well who do we have here today, Derek?” Stiles asked the next time he got on the elevator, no patient in tow.

 

“I’m Isaac!” The kid answered for his nurse.

 

“Well hello Isaac, I’m Nurse Stiles. I haven’t seen you before. Are you new here?”

 

The little boy frowned a bit. “Yeah. My daddy says I’m going to be here for a while.”

 

Stiles knelt before the boy and smiled winningly while giving his knee a tiny squeeze. “Well don’t you worry. You’ve got the best nurse around here taking care of you.” Derek’s stubble did not hide his blush this time. “And I’ll make sure to send up some of my best story tellers to keep you entertained. Would you like that?”

 

Isaac brightened. “I like stories.” Then he tilted his head back to look at Derek who was looking down at him expectantly. “And Derek.” He added quickly, as though he would hurt his feelings if he didn’t. Kids were cute that way.

 

Stiles laughed a bit at that. “Of course you do. Everyone likes Nurse Derek.” I could practically feel the electricity buzzing through my cables with the shy smile Stiles shot at Derek, who cleared his throat loudly and looked down to play with his stethoscope like he always does when he feels awkward.

 

"So you like Nurse Derek too?" Isaac was apparently very excited by this.

 

Stiles colored again and scrubbed at his cheek nervously. "Oh, um. I suppose. But he doesn't talk to me much." He shifted his gaze tentatively up toward Derek again, as if to gage his reaction, only to find Derek very staunchly fiddling with his name tag and not looking.

 

"That's okay! Nurse Derek doesn't talk to anyone!" This child was apparently hell bent on embarrassing the man, whose eyes opened a little wider in astonishment. Isaac wasn’t typically this cheeky.

 

In response to the smug look Stiles was fixing him with, Derek mumbled evasively, "He’s not usually so chatty.”

 

“Don’t you worry, Derek. I’ve only been here two weeks and I bet my patients already have some dirt on me.” I arrived at their floor then, and Stiles shot Isaac a blinding smile before adjusting it to a more hesitantly hopeful grin for Derek. “I’ll see you.”

 

_Now if there were ever a time I wish I could talk some sense into my passengers it was right then. Derek was such a moron back in those early days. It was so obvious Stiles was flirting with him, but Derek just wouldn’t reciprocate even though I knew he wanted to, and if the blushing wasn’t enough to give it away, I distinctly remember what happened next as the moment I knew._

 

Derek's lips tilted upward in just the faintest of smiles, but the shock on Stiles's face made it clear it was as big a gesture as if Derek had just proposed to him. "I'll see you, Stiles."

 

Stiles exited the elevator humming a happy tune.

~~~~~~~~

 

This had been going on for months now-Stiles playfully egging Derek on and Derek stubbornly resisting until eventually he caved and started engaging the persistent younger man in fully fledged conversation.

 

It started with medical topics first, an area I assume Derek felt was a safe zone. Stiles didn’t push Derek to say more, but he never let the conversation falter either. If they didn't manage to finish on the long ride down to wherever they were going, he would somehow manage to pick up exactly where they left off on the next ride they saw each other.

 

They weren't always alone in the elevator, though, and on those rides Derek never spoke. It became quite clear that whatever he was willing to say to Stiles (and whatever patients they had with them) was for Stiles alone. Stiles caught on pretty quickly and never pressed for conversation when others were riding with them, though I noticed with childish glee that he seemed to press himself in as near to Derek as he could manage on these particularly busy trips.

 

One day Derek did the unexpected and asked Stiles a personal question.

 

“Why did you pick geriatrics?”

 

Stiles and Lydia, who had keenly picked up on Derek’s habits, both started to look surprised but were smart enough to stifle the expression. Nobody wanted to embarrass Derek out of opening up to Stiles.

 

“Oh. Well my mom died when I was really little, so my grandparents helped my dad out and took care of me a lot. When I got older and they started declining, I helped take care of them instead. It just kind of went from there.”

 

“Oh.” Derek shifted nervously, like he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do now.

 

“Why are you in pediatrics?” Stiles asked it haltingly.

 

“Um. Kids are easier for me. To be around, that is. I like medicine, but kids are easier to talk to.”

 

“That makes sense.” Stiles smiled softly. “I hear you’re really good with them. The kids like you best.”

 

Derek flushed so deeply I could practically feel the heat radiating from his cheeks. “Really?” He sounded so surprised. How could he not know the kids liked him best? None of them lit up with the other nurses like they did with him.

 

“I do not lie.”

  
“Oh, well, that’s good.”

 

Stiles walked out through my doors chuckling.

 

They talked more freely after that.

~~~~~~~~

 

The next year on Halloween, I was shocked to find that Derek had come to work dressed as the Big Bad Wolf. He never dressed up for Halloween. He and Stiles didn’t run into each other that day, but Stiles got on a few hours after him, pulling Scott in tow to take him up for a special Halloween storytime.

 

“I just don’t understand, Stiles. I thought you’d be the type to dress up for the holidays.” Scott was giving Stiles giant, disappointed puppy eyes.

 

“You mean you can’t tell?” Stiles held his arms out as if inviting Scott to look him over. “I’m Little Red Riding Scrubs! I bought them special.”

 

_Needless to say, I was as unimpressed as Scott looked._

~~~~~~~~

 

A few months later, Derek was returning up from dropping a patient off when Stiles got on looking visibly upset.

 

"Hey, what's wrong?" Derek asked immediately.

 

"S-Scott passed away a little while ago."

 

"Oh Stiles, I'm sorry. Come here." Derek pulled Stiles into his arms in a never before seen display of affection. This was literally the first time I’d ever seen them touch, but Stiles folded into the hug so easily it was like he belonged there. “He was your first patient right?”

 

Stiles had lost other patients before. Scott’s wife Allison had passed only a few months before, followed by Caitlyn, but Scott had been special. He hadn’t only been Stiles’s first patient. They had bickered and teased and swapped stories like old friends. Nurses weren’t technically supposed to get so close to their patients, but when they worked on the long stay wards like Derek and Stiles did it was impossible to not develop strong bonds with some of them.

 

“Why don’t we get some Chinese food when your shift is over.” Derek proposed. Did he just ask Stiles on a date? How did he manage to pop that in there so casually? What is going on?  
   

Stiles nodded slightly against Derek’s shoulder. “Sounds good.” I can’t believe it. Stiles isn’t even surprised. Maybe it’s not a date. Friends eat together all the time. That must be it.

~~~~~~~~

 

_And now we’re here, three years later and seemingly no progress since that day when Derek and Stiles had Chinese food together. They talk, they bicker, they talk about hanging out, and they blush furiously, but they never get together. For three years I have existed as a poor elevator stuck moving along one dimension, living vicariously through these fools who refuse to give me new material to work with._

 

_Today, Derek is taking a new patient named Erica down to the basement to get x-rays and Stiles gets on the elevator, looking amazingly nervous and vaguely sweaty._

 

_“Hi!” He says warmly. “Who’s this?” He follows up, smiling down at the little blond girl._

 

_“I’m Erica! Who’re you?”_

 

_“Well, hi Erica. I’m Nurse Stiles. Are you ready for a very special elevator ride?” She looked at him confusedly, but nodded anyway because children always like special things. “Well good.”_

 

_From where Stiles was kneeling beside Erica’s wheelchair, he reached into the pocket of his scrubs and pulled out a little velvet box. The moment Derek saw it, his mouth fell open on its hinges just the slightest bit, giving a good view of his cute bunny teeth. I was still a little confused until I saw Stiles hold the box up toward Derek and open it, revealing a delicate gold band within._

 

_“Derek, since meeting you exactly three years ago today on this very elevator, you have made me so happy and I would like to officially share my life with you. Will you marry me?"_

 

_The smile that filled Derek's face was brighter than I have ever seen, as he nodded dazedly at Stiles._

 

_"Yeah. Yes. Of course."_

 

_Stiles giggled slightly hysterically before pulling the ring from the box and slipping it onto Derek's finger while Erica clapped her tiny child hands enthusiastically. Without warning, Stiles lunged up and wrapped his arms tightly around his fiance's neck as he pressed their lips together in the first of many joyful kisses._

 

_Yeah, I guess I missed some things along the way._

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments always appreciated and come visit me on [tumblr](http://a-mountain-ash.tumblr.com/)!


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